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Circular No. 6. 



Thomas M. Owen, Commander of the Alabama 

Division, unanimously proposed for 

Commander-in-Chief, U. S. C. V. 



Montgomery, December 15, 1904. 
Comrades: 

The Alabama Division in fourth annual session in the city of Mo- 
bile, November 15, 1904, unanimously proposed Thomas M. Owen, 
Division Commander, to our Confederation for the position of corn- 
man der-in-cbief, and the«uudersigned were appointed a committee 
to present his candidacy. Tbe resolution is as follows: 

Whereas, comrade Thomas M. Owen, commander of the 
Alabama Division, has served in that capacity several terms, 
at all times manifesting an enthusiastic and earnest zeal in 
the performance of his duties and in the accomplishment of 
the objects and purposes of the Confederation, and whereas 
his historical work as Director of the Department of Archives 
and History of the State of Alabama has attracted wide and 
favorable attention; and whereas, it is believed that the ele- 
vation of comrade Owen to the position of commander- in- 
chief of the Confederation would result in great good to the 
organization at large; now therefore be it 

JResolved, by the Alabama Division in fourth annual re- 
union convention assembled, That comrade Thomas M. Owen 
is hereby respectfully proposed for the position of com- 
mander-in-chief of the United Sons of Confederate Veterans, 
at the election therefor in Louisville, Ky., in 1905. 

Comrade Owen is a native of Alabama, a cultivated gentleman, 
and prominent in all patriotic work. On November 18, 1897, he was 
appointed Division judge advocate on the staff of P. H. Mell, first 
commander of the Alabama Division; October 12, 1898, appointed 
commander of the Division, and served continuously until September 
9, 1901, when he voluntarily retired; re-elected Division commander 
November 12, 1902, November 4, 1903, and November 15, 1904. 

In Confederation affairs he has been prominent. At the reunion 
in 1903 and 1904 he served as chairman of the committee on creden- 
tials. At the reunion in Nashville, 1904, he responded to the address 
of welcome on behalf of the U. S. C. V. before the joint session of 
Veterans and Sous. He served as a member of the Historical Com- 
mittee, 1902-03, and as chairman of that committee, 1903-01. See 



Ab /lie 



Minutes, 1903, pp. 47-8, aud Minutes, 1904, pp. 19-24, for copies of 
reports by him. The historical work of comrade Owen has been 
conspicuous. He originated the Alabama plan of meeting the duty 
of the State to its archives (public records) and history by a separate 
Department of State, which was established by the Legislature of 
Alabama February 27, 1901, and of which he was elected first Di- 
rector. 

It is felt, as stated in the resolution, "that the elevation of comrade 
Owen to the position of commander-in-chief of the Confederation 
would result in great good to the organization at large." His selec- 
tion would mean a progressive administration, in which the Confed- 
eration work in every phase would be courageously, earnestly and 
promptly carried on. He has a wide acquaintance over the whole 
South. 

The Alabama Division, therefore, in announcing his candidacy, 
confidently appeals to members of our organization everywhere to 
unite in his support. 
Address communications to the Chairman. 

Very respectfully, 
Wm. W. Brandon, Chairman, Montgomery, 
Wm. B. Bankhead, Huntsville, 
Clarence J. Owens, Anniston, 
Howard Gaillard, Mobile, 
Will T. Sheehan, Montgomery, 

Committee. 



Gift 



3 

Biographical Sketch 

[From Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States (Bos- 
ton, 1903), Vol. vi, p. 99.] 

OWEN, THOMAS McADORY, historian, was born in Jonesboro, 
Jefferson county, Alabama, December 15, 1866; son of Dr. William Mar- 
maduke and Nancy {McAdory) Owen; grandson of Judge Thomas and 
Dolly Payne( Williams) Owen, and great-grandson of Marmaduke and 
Agnes {Payne) Williams. Agnes Payne was a first cousin of Dorothy 
Payne, wife of President James Madison. His Owen and Williams 
ancestors were seated in Henrico and Hanover counties, respectively, 
in Virginia, as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, and 
his McAdory ancestor was a Scotch-Irish immigrant from North Ire- 
land to South Carolina prior to the Revolutionary war. He was 
graduated from the University of Alabama, A. B. and LL. B., 1887, 
A. M., 1893. He was admitted to the bar in 1887 and practiced in 
Bessemer, Carrollton and Birmingham, Ala., until March 1, 1901, 
when he retired from the active practice of law and devoted himselt 
to literary pursuits. He was married, April 12, 1893, to Marie, 
daughter of tbe Hon. John H. Bankhead. He was elected secretary 
of the Alabama Historical Society, June 21, 1898; secretary of the 
Sous of the Revolution in Alabama, April 16, 1894; and a member of 
the American Historical Association in 1894. He was one of the 
founders of the Southern History Association of Washington, D. C, 
April 24, 1896; was instrumental in the establishment of the Alabama 
Department of Archives and History, located in the State capitol at 
Montgomery, Ala., February 27, 1901, and was elected its Director, 
March 2, 1901, and in July, 1902, issued the first number of The Gulf 
States Historical Magazine, published bi-monthly. He edited the 
Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society (vols. 1 to 4, 1898- 
1903,) and the Report of the Alabama History Commission (1901). 
He is the author of a City Code of Bessemer, Alabama (1888); Bib- 
liography of Alabama (1897); Bibliography of Mississippi (1900), 
Annals of Alabama, 1819-1900, being an addendum to Pickett's His- 
tory of Alabama (1900); separate genealogies of the Lester, Strother, 
Eaton, Stansel, Lacey, Kelly, Fisher and Ross families; a History of 
the Great Seal of Alabama, and a sketch of Ephraim Kirby, the first 
Superior Court Judge in what is now Alabama. [He received the 
honorary degree of LL. D. from the University of Alabama, June 
1, 1904; and is the founder and first president of the Alabama Library 
Association, organized at Montgomery, November21, 1904.] 



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